The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-06

when member of the family dies e hole is
aug In the side and he is stuck in with his
ancestors. They are so'plentiful they gave
trouble some years ago when, English
engineers ran railroad through many of
them. Railroads have to run in something
IKE straight line, and they couldn't dodge
Cne cemeteries. The government built
railroad from the Woosong forts at the
mouth or the Shanghai river to Shanghai,
distance of II miles, and DESTROYED so
many OF these mounds that the popt1lace
rose frenzied at the dissertation, tore up the
road, and the government never dared put
1t back again. The English who built it
made handsome profit, as they were paid
about SAC, 600 mile for building it. Cars,
locomotives, and everything were DESTROYED.
from that time until within the last two
years there was no attempt, believe, to
bmld railroad in China, but now they are
building road from Tien-Tsin to Pekin,
"a miles, which will soon be completed
European railroad men sent out to China
beautiful models of cars, track, and engines
Inc little models of engines being nickel
ana gold plated. Americans sent out lot
OF blue drawings, so, of course, the Ameri-
can company got no contracts for building
railroads in China.
LII Hung Chang, the Chinese Prime Min
lister, IS the man of whom Gen. Grant said
lie was the brightest man in China All the
royalty at PeEin is afraid of him. He lives
at Hen-Tsin. The Empress Dowager tele-
graphed for him about two years ago to
come to Pelun for consultation. He tele-
graphed back for them to prepare quarters
Tor 10000 soldiers and he would be up He
was telegraphed to that he need not come
Their idea is supposed to have been to get
him to Pekin alone and there poison or as
sassinate him in.'some way. He is Sc or So
years old and six feet and seven inches high
"a most tremendous man.
MY first contract with the Chinese gov
eminent was to run eight lines of torpedoes
across the Canton river in twenty one days
The torpedoes were moored to cables, and
run by power engines ashore somewhat on
the principle that cable cars are run, the
torpedoeS being kept beneath the surface of
the water as run out. They were arranged
to be fired by electricity, and run on end
less cables, so the firing could be kept up all
day, If necessary. | received 100000 for
the work before / did stroke. was fur
nished all the laborers and soldiers desired
There were 800 laborers and 10000 soldiers,
and | was the only foreigner there-foreign
devil, as they call it. | completed my con-
tract i'll seventeen days by working about
tWenty-one hours out of every twenty-four
in that time Then the Viceroy came down
to inspect the lines and see me fire the tor
pedoes They brought a brand new junk
that cost about $1,000 down there to be
blown to pieces, when any old craft would
have done just as well for the experiment.
This was at the Bogon forts, forty
four miles south of Canton, about so miles
from Hong Kong. After the Viceroy in
spected the engine-houses, cables, etc,
began to send out torpedoes? The Viceroy
asked me to show him how to work the
levers. l did 80. About that time boat
load of coolies came down the river with an
officer aboard. He came ashore at the en-
gine-house, and the coolies remaining in the
boat began to look for a place to tie up
Beneath the water one of these innocents
saw the cable and tied the boats painter to
it. 1t was the Viceroy pulled the lever.
The boat with its frightened load of China
men started out. Its bow went under the
water and the Chinese were struggling in
the river. 1t was then very funny sight and
the Viceroy lay back and laughed until
thought him in danger of suffocation The
Chinaman who tied the painter to the cable
was afterward, l learned, taken out and
soundly bambooed. The explosion that de-
stroyed the junk was made by 260 pounds of
dynamite, and the force was felt up and
down the river a mile and half in each
direction. For several hours Chinese were
at work picking up the thousands of killed
fish.